IAN Stats Community Data Explorer

According to Wikipedia, 'exploration is the attempt to develop an initial, rough understanding of some phenomenon.' With the IAN Stats Community Data Explorer you can look at how IAN Research participants have responded to individual questions on the IAN Research questionnaires. It displays charts and graphs based on IAN Research data from the time when each questionnaire was first administered until January 2013.

Important Notes:

Before publishing or presenting this information, we aggregate the data and remove any information that might tie that information to an individual.

We base the analyses on information submitted over the internet by parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) from the United States who volunteered to participate. Because we use a volunteer population that has participated in online self-report research, the information may contain biases and may not always represent the population of families with a child under the age of 18 diagnosed with an ASD in the US as a whole.

The charts and graphs show responses to individual questions and do not attempt to summarize data on complex issues. To view charts and graphs on the overall status and trends in autism treatment, diagnosis, and expenditures, visit StateStats and look through the IAN Research Reports.

How to interpret the information

At the top of each questionnaire report you will see the title of the questionnaire, its version, and a brief description of the questionnaire. Occasionally, we update or add questions to a questionnaire. The version represents the current questionnaire. The version numbers change whenever the text of a question changes within a questionnaire. This description is the explanatory text that IAN Research participants see when they are filling in the questionnaire.

Each questionnaire is divided into sections. For each section, we provide the name of the section, a description, and any instructions that the participants are given. Figure 1, which follows, shows how a typical question appears on the Community Data Explorer.

Figure 1. How information is displayed on IAN Community Data Explorer

Next, the question is displayed along with a list of the possible responses with which the participants are presented. In many questions, you will see the text: |display_name|. This is a placeholder for the name of the person who the question pertains to. The chart or graph shows how people responded to the question.

You will also see the total responses, which tells you how many people responded to the question. This number is often different than the number of people who participated in the research, because questions pertain to different people and people sometimes skip questions.